Peripatetic patriarch visits Washington, White House

With his flowing black robe and long white beard, Ecumenical Patriarch Bar tholomew is a living portrait of the 2,000-year-old Eastern Orthodox Chris tian faith.

And yet, he says, he’s somewhat of a revolutionary.

“By calling Christianity revolutionary, and saying it is dedicated to change, we are not siding with progressives—just as, by conserving it, we are not siding with conservatives,” he said in a lecture at Georgetown University on November 3. “The only side that we take is that of our faith, which today may seem to land us in one political camp, tomorrow another, but in truth we are always only in one camp, that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”